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TORONTO - Like everybody else in the NBA, the Raptors could have had the accidental superstar, Jeremy Lin.
The difference between the Raps and all the other teams that missed out on their own version of Lin-sanity is they were forever close, forever knocking on the door, interested in Lin. Just not interested enough.
Bryan Colangelo liked Lin from the day he first saw him in a pre-draft workout in 2010. “We knew one thing about him after bringing him in,” said Colangelo. “We knew he was one tough kid.
“He took one of the hardest hits I’ve ever seen on a court and one of the toughest falls. He got hit from behind, crashed to the floor, eventually got up. We didn’t think he’d get up, to be honest. And he shook it off and continued the workout.
“We were extremely impressed by that.”
The Raptors were impressed with his toughness — just not necessarily his game. They talked after the workout, the general manager and the Harvard kid, with Colangelo unconvinced Lin could play in the NBA, unconvinced he would be drafted. “I asked him, ‘What’s your status going to be if you’re not drafted? Where are you going? Do you know who’s interested in you?’ I just wanted to keep the dialogue open.”
The Raptors have had all kinds of opportunities to reconnect with Lin since that pre-draft crash but for various reasons and circumstances, it just never happened. But it almost did.
It almost did just a month or so ago. Earlier this NBA season, with the New York Knicks in complete disarray and relationships rather friendly between Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni, interim general manager Glen Grunwald, and Colangelo, there had been some serious talk about a deal for one of the Raptors’ point guards. No one will say who approached whom about what, but if you play the elimination game, it was probably the veteran Anthony Carter, who was supposed to be heading to New York.
The Knicks thought they needed somebody, anybody to help and Carter, with 12 seasons of work behind him, was an inexpensive and experienced answer.
The situation got so bad for the Knicks that D’Antoni was actually telling people around the league that he had no choice, he was running out of players, that he had to play Lin. Not that he wanted to.
Colangelo, who can’t talk about these kind of things, figured to himself that if he moved one of his point guards to open up a roster spot, there was the possibility he would add the tough kid, Lin, either by trade or waivers, depending on how the Knicks proceeded.
The deal was discussed but never happened.
Then the impossible and incredible occurred all at once: Lin got onto the Knicks floor and hasn’t gotten off since, becoming the accidental star in the process. The undrafted Lin, who couldn’t get a college scholarship, couldn’t find an NBA job, got a start for the Knicks and the team going nowhere, with its stars, Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudamire out with injuries, hasn’t lost a game since. Four starts, five wins.
Lin’s totals, the best first four opening starts in history: 28-23-38-20 points in the four games, along with eight assists a night.
This is Rudy, only a better story and an athlete who can play. This is the short version of Rocky, but it’s not scripted and it’s not fiction. This is a Vince McMahon storyline playing out for real in the NBA. And this is a feature film coming to a theatre near you and Toronto is alive for a basketball night — the Raptors had to turn down media credentials for Tuesday night’s game with the Knicks — because, frankly, there’s never been a story like this one before, in any sport, at any time.
“We thought maybe he could help a team under the right circumstances,” said Colangelo, sharing his thoughts on Lin. “But not quite like what (he’s doing). This level is remarkable. It’s also being done on the world’s biggest stage. It’s the Knicks. It’s Madison Square Garden. He’s doing it without Amare and Carmelo. It’s just so many things coming together in this perfect situation.
“You have to give Jeremy credit. If it’s one or two games, you can call him a flash in the pan. But the fact it’s gone five games and he’s distributing the ball and he’s scoring 20-plus points, it’s a great story. It’s a testament to what kind of young man he is. He has more than a lot of us thought he had. Sometimes it’s a very fine line between being in the league and not being in the league. He’s not only toed the line, he’s jumped to the other side of it.”
And like most things NBA, that’s great for Jeremy Lin, great for sport, great for basketball, just not great for the Raptors.[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
twitter.com/simmonssteve

Imagine if we traded Lin for AC and Toronto played Lin and he became huge there and it came out Mike didnt want to play Jeremy? They would be fired on the spot because they would be exposed as the FRAUDS they are lol.

I cant believe D'Antoni didnt want to play Lin though even after what he had been showing in garbage minutes and against Boston. wow. what incompetance.

Christ D`Antoni really is a moron. We already knew that he only played Lin because he had no choice but to have a player of Lin`s ability and want to give him up for Antony Carter is almost too pathetic to believe.

Christ D`Antoni really is a moron. We already knew that he only played Lin because he had no choice but to have a player of Lin`s ability and want to give him up for Antony Carter is almost too pathetic to believe.

we have established that mda should have played him sooner. but on this issue you are wrong in two ways.

mda was not going to trade lin. grunwald was going to trade lin.

if mda made these decisions we would have had a pg from the beginning of the season. if you want to hate on him for the right reasons im ok with that but if you're going to put things like this on mda it makes you look like an even bigger moron.

This says a proposed deal of Lin for Carter (assumed) happened about a month ago.

But the deal didn't happen, which means we wanted to keep Lin, I guess? So is that MDA's genius? Or, if Lin goes it is MDA's fault; but if he stays (which he did), it is MDA's fault because he didn't outsmart the entire basketball world and God himself by making him into a NBA starter sooner?

This article couldn't even give an unnamed source, too. Says "nobody on either side will say who said what or who proposed what or who came to who".

AKA, writer of article knows absolutely nothing concrete, and is spinning one of the many obvious and routine player-trade talks that go on all the time in the NBA between GM's and management, yet never materialize.

we have established that mda should have played him sooner. but on this issue you are wrong in two ways.

mda was not going to trade lin. grunwald was going to trade lin.

if mda made these decisions we would have had a pg from the beginning of the season. if you want to hate on him for the right reasons im ok with that but if you're going to put things like this on mda it makes you look like an even bigger moron.

Lin could have ended up in Toronto and never to be heard about again or put on a shelf in Toronto for later use.....I am sure if Carter did come to NY and improved the Knicks offense and ball movement this board would debate why we did not move LIN sooner if we could have had a proven PG like carter who happened to play nicely for us last year ( especially in the Heat game )....

Lin could have ended up in Toronto and never to be heard about again or put on a shelf in Toronto for later use.....I am sure if Carter did come to NY and improved the Knicks offense and ball movement this board would debate why we did not move LIN sooner if we could have had a proven PG like carter who happened to play nicely for us last year ( especially in the Heat game )....

so in the END....we got so F'in LUCKY

i agree completely. we got lucky someone other than mda didnt trade lin. mda could have taken luck out of it by putting lin in sooner, but we cannot confuse the failure to do so with mda making the decision to trade him.

i agree completely. we got lucky someone other than mda didnt trade lin. mda could have taken luck out of it by putting lin in sooner, but we cannot confuse the failure to do so with mda making the decision to trade him.

Everyone forgets that in Lin's garbage minutes he had a lot of TO's and missed some of his drives to the hoop on an ugly fashion.....

In the Celtics game he committed a foul behind the arc with 3 seconds left......Now where Dantonio should have seen the Balls on this kid is when he drove right back and got fouled to get 2 points back....But so he did not lay the 2nd half Dantonio waited for the NETS game.....remember he had the same choice the 2nd half of the Celtics game that he did in the NETS game...

I do not remember which Knick it was either Tyson, Amare or MELO who said that LIN did not look this good in practice....he held his own but they never thought he would play like this.....

Everyone forgets that in Lin's garbage minutes he had a lot of TO's and missed some of his drives to the hoop on an ugly fashion.....

In the Celtics game he committed a foul behind the arc with 3 seconds left......Now where Dantonio should have seen the Balls on this kid is when he drove right back and got fouled to get 2 points back....But so he did not lay the 2nd half Dantonio waited for the NETS game.....remember he had the same choice the 2nd half of the Celtics game that he did in the NETS game...

I do not remember which Knick it was either Tyson, Amare or MELO who said that LIN did not look this good in practice....he held his own but they never thought he would play like this.....

yea lin wasnt 100% upside, sometimes it looked like his high motor could get him into trouble. even if he showed billy walker caliber stupidity he changed the game by driving when no one else would. when you compare him to the next best option its a no brainer. toney douglas made stupid mistakes too. maybe not as frequently as lin did in his very few garbage minutes, but they were a result of stupidity, not overexcitement or anything like that, which can be easily changed. remember how many times our guards telegraphed lazy passes that ended up going right into the defenders hands?

yea lin wasnt 100% upside, sometimes it looked like his high motor could get him into trouble. even if he showed billy walker caliber stupidity he changed the game by driving when no one else would. when you compare him to the next best option its a no brainer. toney douglas made stupid mistakes too. maybe not as frequently as lin did in his very few garbage minutes, but they were a result of stupidity, not overexcitement or anything like that, which can be easily changed. remember how many times our guards telegraphed lazy passes that ended up going right into the defenders hands?

I was a strong advocate for LIN the minute we signed him. Not because I felt he would be so good but for the simple reason that we had nothing to lose. I mean we were that bad at the PG position that anything would have been better. So one figures a guy who could play ball, shined against Wall and was a Harvard graduate was worth the shot.....

I really dont care why or why not Dantonio waited this long BUT I do believe that the timing ended up being perfect absolutely perfect for all to happen the way it did.......

Lins HS Coach cannot believe it.....he had an awesome quote that when he was watching the Laker game Kobe and Lin were running up the court neither part of the action and Kobe put his hand on Lin, not to shove but not a tap to send a message you know there is a pecking order thing...Jeremy swiped his hand away.....like get the bleep away from me.....said jeremys a nice guy but he's cut throat.

Lins HS Coach cannot believe it.....he had an awesome quote that when he was watching the Laker game Kobe and Lin were running up the court neither part of the action and Kobe put his hand on Lin, not to shove but not a tap to send a message you know there is a pecking order thing...Jeremy swiped his hand away.....like get the bleep away from me.....said jeremys a nice guy but he's cut throat.

I knew nothing other than he went to Harvard until I saw his ability to drive. That was really all I needed to see.

If this is true, green rep for whoever finds video of it. I love that he's a nice guy but I wish he was a little less 'sunday school' nice guy. I would love for him to take a little bit of credit.

I knew nothing other than he went to Harvard until I saw his ability to drive. That was really all I needed to see.

If this is true, green rep for whoever finds video of it. I love that he's a nice guy but I wish he was a little less 'sunday school' nice guy. I would love for him to take a little bit of credit.

there is a jeremy lin website....they post everything.
HS coach also said Lin did not take practice seriously and when he went to a part in HS if there was alcohol there he would leave.....so I do not see him out partying with the Knicks..

Lin could have ended up in Toronto and never to be heard about again or put on a shelf in Toronto for later use.....I am sure if Carter did come to NY and improved the Knicks offense and ball movement this board would debate why we did not move LIN sooner if we could have had a proven PG like carter who happened to play nicely for us last year ( especially in the Heat game )....

so in the END....we got so F'in LUCKY

Yep this article just shows how lucky the Knicks got. Lin in toronto would of probably got no burn. Also Lin very likely saved D'antoni's job and got him an extension since he plays PnR.....

On another note Dolan must be besides himself with Glee. To have a money maker like Lin on the Knicks and only have to pay him a few million for a few years......